The Irish Proust
To mark the centenary of the death of Marcel Proust, this two-day conference will bring together scholars and writers from Ireland, France, the UK, and North America to explore the French novelist’s influence on Irish literature as well as Irish themes within his writing. Proust displayed a keen interest in Gaelo-Celtic history and mythology. He was also fascinated by the figure of Oscar Wilde. And his work, which was briefly banned in Ireland, occupies a central position within the Irish literary and cultural imaginary. From Samuel Beckett and Elizabeth Bowen to Brendan Behan and John McGahern, In Search of Lost Time (1913-27) has long been a touchstone for Irish writers. By delving into what is Irish within Proust and Proustian within Irish letters, ‘The Irish Proust’ will shed new light on the greatest French novel of the twentieth century and its far-reaching cultural significance. Speakers will include Martina Evans, Carlo Gebler, Elisabeth Ladenson, Nathalie Mauriac Dyer, and Barry McCrea.
Friday, October 28th:
9.30-10: Introductions
10-11: First Keynote: Nathalie Mauriac Dyer (Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes—Centre national de la recherche scientifique): “Proust, Beckett et cette ‘abominable edition of the Nouvelle Revue Française’”
11-11.20: Break
11.20-12.35: Panel 1: Proust and Post-War Irish Realism
Chair: Michael Cronin (Trinity College Dublin)
Eamon Maher (Technological University of Dublin): “Proustian Echoes in the Work of John McGahern”
Deirdre McMahon (University College Dublin): “Proust Revisited: The Legacy of Marcel Proust in Brendan Behan’s Bridewell”
Richard Robinson (Swansea University): “‘Real without Being Actual, Ideal without Being Abstract’: Proustian Memory and John McGahern’s Memoir”
12.35-1.30: Lunch
1.30-3.10: Panel 2: Elizabeth Bowen: The Anglo-Irish Proust?
Chair: Max McGuinness (University College Dublin)
Victoria Baena (University of Cambridge): “Cartographies of Landscape and Loss: Elizabeth Bowen and Proust”
Heather Ingman (Trinity College Dublin): “‘A Very Dangerous Influence’: Elizabeth Bowen and Proust”
Patricia Laurence (City University of New York): “Elizabeth Bowen’s Long Proust Jag”
Isabelle Serça (Université de Toulouse): “Bowen d’après Proust”
3.10-3.30: Break
3.30-4.45: Panel 3: Irish Themes in Proust
Chair: Eamon Maher (Technological University of Dublin)
Yassine Ait Ali (Princeton University): “À la recherche du thé perdu: de Sir Thomas Lipton à Marcel Proust”
Cristian Micu (Independent scholar): “Proust et la question irlandaise: questions historiques, génétiques et amoureuses”
Max McGuinness (University College Dublin): “Gaelic Ancestry, Mythology, and Toponymy in the Recherche”
5-6: Second Keynote: Elisabeth Ladenson (Columbia University) : “Proust and Wilde”
6-7: Drinks Reception
Saturday, October 29th:
10-11.20 Panel 4: Proustian Echoes in Irish Poetry
Chair: Lucy Collins (University College Dublin)
Gráinne Condon (Independent scholar): “Mary Devenport O’Neill’s Reception of Marcel Proust” Fenian Kenney (University of Notre Dame): “Nocturnal Narratives: In Search of Mary Devenport O’Neill”
Catherine Lowry O’Neill (South East Technological University): “Reveries on Woe and Wonder: Marcel Proust and Seamus Heaney”
11.20-11.40: Break
11.40-1 Panel 5: Proust and Franco-Irish Modernist Circuits
Chair: Alexandra Lukes (Trinity College Dublin)
Michael Cronin (Trinity College Dublin): “Amphibian Proust : Aesthetic Renewal and the TCD French Department in the 1920s”
Emer O’Beirne (University College Dublin): “Pedalling Influence: Bicycling away from Proust in Samuel Beckett and Jean Echenoz”
Patrick O’Donovan (University College Cork): “‘Ands’ and Ends: Irish Avatars of the Proustian Room”
1-2: Lunch
2-3.30: Panel 6: Proust and Contemporary Irish Literary Practice (Writers’ Panel) Chair: James Ryan (University College Dublin)
Martina Evans;
Carlo Gebler (Trinity College Dublin);
Darragh McCausland
3.30-3.45: Break
3.50-5.35: Panel 7: Proust, Ireland, and the World
Chair: Mary Gallagher (University College Dublin)
Louis Klee (University of Cambridge): “Mysteries of Jumièges: Proust, Gerald Murnane, and the ‘Idealist Novel’”
François Heusbourg (Éditions Unes) & Jean-Marc Quaranta (Université d’Aix- Marseille) : “Marcel Proust sous la lumière de Geoffrey Squires: lire et relire la Recherche à travers le prisme d’un poète irlandais contemporain”
Yi-lin Repona Tai (University of Exeter): “In Search of Lost Encounters: Proust, Joyce, and the Aesthetic Politics of Love and Capture”
Sam Slote (Trinity College Dublin): “The Exercises of Style of M. Proust, Mr Joyce, and Mrs McKittrick Ros”
5.45-6.45: Third Keynote: Barry McCrea (University of Notre Dame): “Proust, Ireland, and the socio-economic language of the novel”
6.45-6.55: Concluding Remarks